Face it, the only way it works is if you can teleport to your friend and only on a temporary basis.

Yup... and that would suck, atleast for me. I don't think I would wanna just leave the planet or place I was in and begin on a different spot where my friend is. Then jump to the location of my other friend and play on that planet... doesn't work, for me.

Face it, the only way it works is if you can teleport to your friend and only on a temporary basis.

Yup... and that would suck, atleast for me. I don't think I would wanna just leave the planet or place I was in and begin on a different spot where my friend is. Then jump to the location of my other friend and play on that planet... doesn't work, for me.

Not necessarily. Here's my design to implement this with in-universe mechanics and maintain your sense of personal presence in the universe:

You have to build android units and outfit them with all the tools they need from the resources you gather. Then, you can invite your friends to take over an android "over a subspace link" in their cockpit (parked in a base) to join you remotely, thereby "teleporting", but not really.

I know I'm basically making multiplayer an unlockable feature, but since everyone on the staff seems so committed to the original vision of the game, I think it's an acceptable compromise.

Face it, the only way it works is if you can teleport to your friend and only on a temporary basis.

No, there is a very simple way to do it that doesn't involve this.

If they're your friends you can communicate. Before you allow the player to log in for the first time, ask them if they'd like to play with their friends and if so to enter the in-game name of at least one friend they have. That player then spawns in within a proximity of the player or players that they listed. You put a networking bot on the friends lists that checks proximity and social networks, and if there are outliers (I.E. you have one friend who is nowhere near the rest of your friends) the game asks you to choose.

It's then your prerogative on whether you actively meet up with your friends or not even after that by using out of game communication to coordinate the search, or you allow it to happen or not happen by chance.